The regional network for freedom of the press and expression Voces del Sur recorded 703 cases of attacks on press freedom in Nicaragua in 2022 and the exile of 93 journalists, according to a report released on January 9.
“We must record that, due to persecution, harassment, and the lack of work spaces, at least 93 Nicaraguan journalists have gone into exile in 2022; In addition to this, at least four journalists were prevented from entering the country by order of the General Directorate of Migration and Aliens,” the organization highlighted.
Voces del Sur highlighted “the case of journalist Luis Felipe Palacios, correspondent (delegate) of the EFE Agency in Nicaragua, who was denied his return by Migration and Immigration after a business trip.”
“During 2022, Voces del Sur documented a total of 104 alerts of violations of press freedom, which translated into 703 cases, in which the indicator of abusive use of state power appears as the main aggression with 498 cases,” he said. the network in your report.
According to the organization, the Government of Nicaragua attacked freedom of the press through the abusive use of state power (498 cases), aggressions and attacks (159), stigmatizing speeches (15), Internet restrictions (11), judicial processes (9 ), restrictions on access to information (5), arbitrary detentions (5), and cross-cutting gender indicator (1).
State entities were identified as the main causes of attacks, with 639, followed by “parastatals” (31), unidentified (22), and non-state (11).
The attacks, according to the organization, were executed against 63 legal persons and 85 natural persons, 12 of these against the director of Radio La Costeñísima Kalua Salazar, 8 against the journalist of the same radio station Yahaciela Barrera, and five against the Radio Darío reporter Tania López.
According to Voces del Sur, the constant exile of journalists coincided with the decreasing number of complaints in 2022 registered by Voces del Sur, which went from 114 in January of that year to two in December.
“At the end of 2022, at least 178 journalists exiled since 2018 are counted,” he added.
2022 “closes with worrying self-censorship, a marked trend of attacks on women journalists and more hostility,” concluded Voces del Sur.
Nicaragua has been experiencing a sociopolitical crisis since April 2018 which, according to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR), left at least 355 dead from that date until July 2019, of which President Daniel Ortega has admitted 200.
Ortega will use busy printing press to La Prensa
The newspaper La Prensa denounced this same January 9 that Daniel Ortega will start up the printing press that was occupied from the newspaper in August 2021 and that has been under police search ever since.
“In recent days, La Prensa received unofficial information that the Ortega Murillo regime rehired personnel specialized in managing the commercial printing press. In addition, it acquired inputs for the operation of these teams”, indicated the newspaper in its digital edition, whose newsroom is in exile for security reasons.
La Prensa, Nicaragua’s oldest and most prestigious newspaper, was also Ortega’s most critical print outlet.
In August 2021, it stopped circulating on paper due to lack of supplies and the police occupation, but it continued to report from its website despite the expropriation of its industrial plant last August and the exile of its entire newsroom in mid-2022. .
Regarding Ortega’s alleged plans, the newspaper explained that “the versions given to La Prensa indicate that the regime will start up the commercial printing press and also the rotary where the newspaper was printed and books can be produced in large quantities.”
With the facilities, the press and other printing equipment, Ortega will be able to print newspapers or books faster than any other press in Nicaragua, La Prensa remarked.
According to the newspaper, the value of the assets seized from La Prensa by the Government of Nicaragua amount to between 18 and 20 million dollars, instead of the 10 million dollars initially reported, due to a recent appraisal, which included the building , seized machinery and equipment.
La Prensa has described the government expropriation as a “theft” and as a “de facto confiscation”.
For its part, the Nicaraguan government has converted the headquarters of La Prensa, in northern Nicaragua, into the José Coronel Urtecho Cultural and Polytechnic Center.
La Prensa was founded on March 2, 1926. Its last general manager was Juan Lorenzo Holmann Chamorro, who on March 31, 2022 was sentenced to nine years in prison for the crime of money laundering, amid criticism from organizations humanitarians and defenders of press freedom who consider him innocent.
Holmann Chamorro is the nephew-in-law of former President Violeta Barrios de Chamorro (1990-1997), who defeated Ortega in the 1990 elections.
